


Dollhouse

by tokyoblackbird



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2018-03-07 12:36:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3173912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokyoblackbird/pseuds/tokyoblackbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The heartwarming tale of a boy and his only friend, a sex doll, in the Nebraskan wilderness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Little House

Two weeks after Ashura left, Fai woke to the smell of burning.

 

It was not the clean wood-smoke of the fireplace; something chemical, synthetic was melting. He scrambled to the window. On the hill beyond the river valley hung an inky smudge. He dressed and ran outside.

There was no sign of anybody in the woods around the cabin. He strained his eyes for just a footprint, a stray leather glove—but saw nothing, until he reached the river.

On the far bank was a long, white leg. It was torn off at the hip. It had fallen into the muddy rushes.

Fai ran across the bridge, his heart in his throat.

But, there was no blood. He touched the ragged edge. The leg was made of some kind of pliable rubber.

He noticed a torso further uphill, lodged behind a tree. It was perfectly formed and frighteningly realistic, except for cartoonishly large breasts and nipples painted cherry-red. An arm dangled from the tree’s branches, a blackened head kissed the roots, dark hair tangled with dead leaves. The hillside was littered with beautiful body parts.

At the top of the hill, Fai came across the aluminum wing of a small plane, and a large cardboard box, both miraculously intact. The smoke was heavier here; he gasped through his mouth. No doubt the pilot’s body was entombed in some twisted, smoldering wreckage nearby, but Fai didn’t want to see it. He knew Ashura was not the pilot.

The pilot of a plane so thoroughly destroyed was surely dead. Ashura couldn’t be dead.

(Anyway, Ashura wouldn’t have anything to do with dolls. That was not his line of work.)

Fai cut open the box with a pocketknife. There was a man inside, who glared up at him.

Fai liked him right away.

He was muscular and browned. He looked scornful and fierce. He was the kind of man who wouldn’t tolerate fear.

“I’ll go, since you’re too scared,” he’d say.

“No, I’ll go too,” Fai would reply. (“ _I knew him best._ ”)

“Fine, but don’t get in my way, brat,” the man would growl. And Fai would nod happily and follow…

Fai nodded, absently.

He couldn’t imagine an mysterious smile on this man’s face. This man’s smiles would be either broad and wicked, or delicate and furiously blushing.

There would be no secrets. 

Although the man was as tall as Ashura, and Fai was skinny for fourteen, he draped the man’s arms over his shoulders and dragged him home.

 

Fai felt happy. It had been two weeks since anyone had looked him in the eye.

 


	2. A Loving Father

The man was naked, so Fai washed him in the bathtub and dressed him in Ashura’s white sweater and lounge pants.

 

He sat the man in the armchair by the fireplace. The fire was not lit, but it would have to be in a couple weeks. The floorboards were chilly under his bare feet. Fai reminded himself to gather firewood.

Fai knelt to put Ashura’s slippers on the stranger’s feet. Then he stepped back to admire his handiwork.

The man continued to glare.

“Oh come on,” Fai said soothingly, “you look nice. Not the same, but.”

 _Who are you?_ said the man.

“I’m Fai.”

 _Kurogane_ , said the man.

(Fai had always liked the headstrong ninja in Ashura’s collection of folktales.)

Fai approached the man shyly and slid into his lap, as he often had with Ashura. When he was younger. The man didn’t push Fai away. Fai curled up against his chest and breathed in the memory of Ashura’s cool peppermint scent. He wished Kurogane were warmer.

“I have to find him,” confessed Fai, “but I’m afraid.”

Ashura had found Fai first, in a row house in a city. It was so long ago, Fai didn’t remember his parents’ faces, just the sound of two clean gunshots. No screams. There had been a little dog, though, barking like it was insane.

And then Ashura’s face, eyes distant with grief. Fai was in the basement, between the bare wall and the radiator, but Ashura had found him, probably following the sound of his hiccuping sobs in the silence. Ashura ran a hand through Fai's hair and even though Fai did not know him, he relaxed a little.

That was all he could remember of his old life.

 

Fai used to be timid and tired and hungry all the time, but after eight years with Ashura, he could read and write and was always full of questions. 

Every few days, for as long as Fai could remember, Ashura left with his hair tied back like the day they had met.

"Where are you going?" Fai asked.

"Buying us groceries."

"Can I come with you?"

The very first time Fai asked, Ashura said gravely, "You were young, so I don't know how much you remember. It's not safe for you, Fai."

("No...I remember," said Fai.

"Good," said Ashura.)

After that, Ashura only gave Fai a sorry look and Fai would fetch him a pair of leather gloves and Ashura would kiss him on the forehead and smile that smile that always made Fai feel warm. 

But once, when Fai hugged him goodbye, he felt the handgun tucked in Ashura's pocket.

For once, he didn't dare ask.

They didn’t own a TV. Ashura never brought home newspapers or spoke of the outside world. "They're still looking for you," was all he ever said. “It’s better here.” 

Of that, Fai had never had any doubt. It was better with Ashura.

 _Do you know where he could be?_ asked Kurogane.

Fai shook his head. “He took the dirt-bike. I wish I could get some news…”

_But you can’t._

“I can’t…”

The sun had fully risen. It was maybe noon.

"I'm going to check the snares," Fai said, determinedly cheerful. "I've never had to use them before, but I've seen--I've seen--" He wavered at the memory.

He sat up so Kurogane's lips brushed against his forehead. He closed his eyes. "Maybe I'll gather some pine-nuts too." Without Ashura's frequent grocery trips, the fridge was growing worryingly empty. He kissed Kurogane's cheek.

 

"I'll be back soon, so please don't miss me!" 


	3. A Good Son

The cabin had three bedrooms.

 

One was stacked to the ceiling with plastic bins and drawers. Gardening tools, dried flowers, and zip-lock bags of miscellaneous vegetable seeds dangled from hooks. Useful loops of nylon rope in various thicknesses mingled with tidy folders of Fai's childhood scribbles. (Ashura always had an order, that much was clear, but Fai could not figure out the organization...)

Lurking on the far wall, though, squatting side-by-side, were the gun cabinet--always locked--and, strangely, a heavy wooden vanity with drawers full of neatly-arranged knives, and blades, and vials, and wires. Always locked too, except accidentally, once.

As for the other two bedrooms: One was Ashura's and one was Fai's. 

Fai used to share a bed with Ashura, until he became too old, Ashura said. Fai was nine. 

"But it's warmer with you," said Fai, lingering by the doorway in his penguin-pattern pajamas. "Also I'm scared."

He wasn't really scared because the window was wide and always flooded his room with moonlight, and the little cabin sat snug in the Rockies with a clear and beautiful view, even at night, but Ashura always accommodated Fai's fear. Even then, when it should have been obvious, Ashura hesitated. 

"I'm right next door," he said. "If you need me, I'll be with you before anything bad can happen."

"Yes," said Fai happily, forgetting to pretend. 

Still, Ashura hesitated. "Okay..." he said. "Only tonight."

"Yesss!" Fai ran to get the book of folktales from his new bedroom. 

That night they finished "The Tale of the Oki Islands." The brave and heartbroken Tokoyo, on a suicide mission, miraculously killed the evil sea god and dragged his body ashore. Humbled and amazed, the emperor freed her wrongfully imprisoned father. The two were reunited at last. 

"Don't rely on me," Ashura concluded abruptly. "Don't rely on anyone. Be brave by yourself."

"Daddy, I love you," replied Fai drowsily. 

 

So Fai tried very hard to be brave.

He lay in bed and he stared up at the stars through his window. The sky was clear, but he felt like it was always clear and unseasonably warm right before a blizzard. It was late November and a blizzard could blow in and the snowflakes would be akin to bombs; the withered remnants of the last wild vegetables would be obliterated under white, and he wasn't sure if he had enough firewood if the electricity went out, which it might, because he wasn't sure if Ashura was able to pay the bills if he wasn't able to buy Fai food, not that Ashura was dead, _absolutely not_...

No rabbits had wandered into Fai's traps. He had adjusted the foliage around the snares despondently. There were also yellow grubs in the pine cones. He hadn't expected there to be. He threw them out but he wondered if in a few weeks, he'd _wish_ for grubs.

Two months down the line, January, the wind would whip the temperature down to -50. Fai imagined himself emaciated, huddled in the dark under his blankets, gnawing on the dried flowers from the storage room...

He shook his head. "Happy thoughts!" 

So he thought of Kurogane, still seated in the living room, staring at the far kitchen window. Lonely.

"Musn't."  

Kurogane clasped his hands together, the only sign of cold his pride would allow. 

"No. I'm too old. Also it's silly."

Kurogane looked grumpier than usual too; the only sign of sadness...

" _Fine_." Fai scrambled out of bed, ran down the icy hall, dragged Kurogane to his bedroom, and stuffed him under the covers. The doll took a while to warm up in Fai's arms.  

"This is just to stay warm," Fai said sternly. "These are difficult times. We have to stay strong." 

If anything, Kurogane's frown deepened, which made Fai laugh. 

Fai poked Kurogane's cheek. 

 _What,_  said Kurogane, embarrassed into monosyllables.

Fai poked again, for the fun of it. 

_Stop that._

"You know what. I won't just wait," said Fai seriously. _For winter to come. For Ashura to fight his way back home._ "We have to do it. We have to go save Dad. Tomorrow."

 _Alright,_ said Kurogane. 

 


End file.
